GM To Begin Producing New Line Of Electric Commercial Vans This Year In Canada

General Motors Company GM is set to begin churning out new commercial electric vans by the end of this year.

What Happened: The Detroit-based automaker and Canadian union Unifor have tentatively agreed to produce the electric light-commercial van, the EV600, at the CAMI manufacturing plant in Ingersoll, Ontario. GM is investing $800 million into the plant.

Although the agreement still needs to be approved by the union's rank and file, GM said in its announcement late on Friday that "work will begin immediately" so the plant can begin delivering the vans late this year.

Part Of BrightDrop: The project is part of a new line of business GM launched this past week called BrightDrop, a play to get an edge in both e-commerce logistics and vehicle electrification. Besides the EV600 van, BrightDrop also will offer an electric pallet called the EP1 for moving goods from delivery trucks to customers' doors, as well as software to support the new offerings.

GM said FedEx Corporation FDX has signed up as the first customer of the EV600, for use as part of the FedEx Express service.

GM shares ended down 3.01% on Friday, at $49.97.

Photo courtesy GM.